THE Cosmode-BW B-school survey is one that cuts out subjective bias altogether. It is also the most comprehensive and rigorous (all data was validated and every school received a validation score) survey of B-schools in the country today.

There are nearly a thousand B-schools - 984, to be precise in India. Of these, based on the survey criteria number of years in operation, whether offering a full-time, two-year MBA or an equivalent course, whether the degrees or diplomas were recognised, etc., - only 384 were invited to take part. Finally,214 volunteered to participate.

Detailed questionnaires were sent to the schools. The parameters and weightages assigned to them were as follows: Infrastructure (100); Faculty, Research and Consultancy, Management Development Programmes (250); Admission and Delivery (250); Networking (100); Placement, Industry Interface and Validation (300). The schools were told well in advance that all data submitted would be crosschecked by validation teams.

Each parameter was then broken down into sub-parameters for better understanding of data. For example, infrastructure was divided into classrooms, library, computers and teaching aids, and hostel. Faculty, research and consultancy had sub-categories like full-time faculty, faculty publications, number of research papers produced, and nonpostgraduate programmes offered. The placement data had sub-categories like number of international placements, number of students selected per recruiter, students being offered stipends and industry interface. Finally, 75 marks were assigned for the validation process - schools that submitted all supporting documents got the highest scores, while marks were deducted for those who failed to do so. In the end, 130 schools sent in fully completed questionnaires. During the validation process, six schools withdrew.

The quantitative validation was followed by a qualitative check in which the research team first interacted with the directors/deans, then had meetings with the admission and placement chairpersons and students. This was followed by an inspection of campus facilities including classrooms, hostels, cafeteria and library, where the team saw available documents on governance, faculty evaluation, curriculum review, and so on. (See the chart indicating the percentage of valid data.)

Among the schools which provided 100 per cent data were MDI, Gurgaon, XIM, Bhubaneswar, Goa Institute of Management, ICFAI Business School, Hyderabad, and Fore School of Management, Delhi. Validating data for the annual average salary was tough, since different firms and B-schools use different methods to calculate cost to company (CTC). Also, while some recruitment companies offered the same packages at different Bschools, others followed a two-tier system. To validate the data, offer letters were sourced both from B-schools as well as the recruiting firms. Finally, Cosmode worked out a common criteria to calculate CTC. This included the gross package that was offered while excluding calculations like gratuity, cost of training, house loans, cost of furniture, etc.